I Can't
by WolfyMagician
Summary: "...forgive me...I love you..please...Sally?"  "I can't."  A short story about Jack making a big mistake and trying to win Sally back for it. Will he succeed? Finished.
1. Chapter 1

**I Can't**

**XXXxxxXXX**

Jack stood, disgusted with himself, on the other side of the large, metallic door.

How _could_ he?

Him, of all people.

How could he hurt Sally like that?

Was it really fair for him to say that since he was intoxicated with alcohol, he could be excused with _that_ kind of behavior?

No! Absolutely _not_! He should've known better...

"Sally," he murmured for the umpteenth time, voice sounding so strange to him with the mixture of sadness and fear. He let a bony hand rest on the shiny door, although it seemed to taunt him instead. How long would she keep him away?

Ever since she saw...

He didn't mean to kiss _her_. Heck, she was just about to leave!

As the Pumpkin King, Jack had felt that he was solely responsible for everyone in Halloween Town, resident or not. That woman...she was just a passerby, just wanted to get back to Christmas Town, to her home.

It was also a celebration night. For the success of Halloween Town's extravagant Halloween that year. For Jack's recent engagement to his beloved rag-doll. He, naturally, drank a few glasses of wine and mead. Nothing new.

But, it was.

On the spur of the moment, he had grabbed the Christmas-lady and kissed her good-bye, full on the mouth, just as all his male companions cheered him on to. It had lasted so long.

_Much _longer than necessary.

A few seconds later, Jack came to his senses and broke the kiss off. He was shocked. The woman...she was smiling. But when he apologized...

She kissed him once more, with more passion on her side.

His mind was so blank...he couldn't think correctly. It was only the sound of sobbing behind them that pushed him back into terrible reality.

And when Jack looked up, he was horrified to see the only love of his life (well, afterlife) running away, away from him.

_Sally._

Presently, their position was, in Jack's opinion, inevitable:

Sally, on the other side of her metal, bedroom door in Doctor Finklestein's tower, sitting as he cried. She was against the door, Jack knew. Obviously, she had locked him out, windows and all. Why, she even jammed a wooden stick in front of the handle so he couldn't turn it. He had been lucky he managed to get inside the residence to begin with!

How long has it _been_ now?

Jack was, of course, on the outside, pleading with her. He felt like crying.

Was he actually going to_ lose _her? After everything they've been through? He knew how bad life was without Sally. Now that he had a taste of complete, unending _bliss_ with her always around him, _loving _him, how could he possibly return to the way things were before?

He couldn't. _He wouldn't_!

"Sally, my love, please let me in!" Jack tried to push the door open. Nothing. "Won't you please come out to me? Please...I'll spend the rest of eternity trying to win you back if it takes! Please, don't hide from me. I need to see you, my future Pumpkin Queen. I need you..."

She sniffled. He heard it, as she was all he could pay attention to. Was that a good sign?

"...oh, how could you, Jack?" Her first words of the evening. Yes, it did sting him. Why would it not? It was_ much_ worse than any form of torture from Oogie's machines. The words, although softly spoken, hit him like the hardest and strongest of whips. "Why?"

"I'm sorry," he whispered, falling to his knees. Jack placed his head against the door, feeling the cold as his skull touched the metal. The tears finally came. "Please...forgive me...I _love_ you...please..."

"..."

"Sally?" His breath stuck in his throat.

"I can't."

And so Jack Skellington's heard broke.

He had lost all her love, hadn't he?

* * *

**A/N: I have no idea. I don't own TNBC.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ch 2: Short-Lived**

She doesn't want to be under love's spell.

It keeps her from...enjoying life and interacting with the people she cares about.

Just like Finkelstein had when she was first made.

Except now, it is her _husband_.

Yes, they made up from that squabble. It was short-lived, in her eyes. After that fiasco with the oddly-beautiful Christmas Town woman (as in _gorgeous_; she wasn't an elf or anything, but a _goddess_), Sally had pretended to have _'forgotten'_ what had happened that evening. Jack was relived, taking advantage of the excuse she basically _handed_ to him to woo her with gifts and poetry for _"no reason,"_ as he had stated.

She knew.

She set it all up, so she_ had_ to have known, shouldn't she, that her boyfriend was doing all that to make up for his rash behavior?

Exactly.

They married. Her and Jack, per say.

She doesn't know why she has willingly loved him again, but there is always an ache in her heart that reminds her that he has never mentioned anything.

It is as though he doesn't trust her enough...

She has hoped (wished for, even) that everything would be perfect and full of love just as it was before.

The funny thing...the complete opposite has happened.

The present, now, involves her pretending _not_ to know that her husband of seven years, Jack Skellington, is constantly cheating on her with other women.

Mostly with _that_ woman, though, who first started the problem.

Sally doesn't even know her name.

She doesn't want to.

The house is quiet. Nobody is awake. Her two sons are comfortably tucked in with respective pumpkin-headed scarecrows each. Zero is fast asleep downstairs.

Jack is not home.

He has snuck out _again_—oh, those words hurt Sally more than she lets on—thinking that his wife is not aware of anything.

She is.

Why does she do it? Why should she turn a blind eye to everything her husband does, knowing very well that he is _not_ under a crazy spell and acting on his own accord?

Because she _loves_ him.

And (although she refuses the idea) he loves her, too.

But he needs this..._outlet._

He wants to_ feel_ like the Pumpkin King, not some worshipped, gentle, all-around-good kind of guy everyone assumes he is and respects him for.

And being with those other women makes him feel just that; a cold, pleasing, and dangerous ruler that can make all his ladies _beg_ for him.

_He likes it._

Sally knows. She does nothing, but she knows all too well.

Perhaps it is that love for him that allows her to force a smile everyday, every morning, and go about acting like a love-sick fool for her husband, while on the inside she dies a little more.

Her children are completely unaware, as they should be, and think their parents have a perfect marriage (or whatever six-year-olds think marriage is, anyway).

She has been up the whole night.

Straining her ears, she can hear someone slowly open their front door, and then a soft click as they carefully close it behind them. The immediate creaking of the stairs tell her that Jack is not hungry for a snack as he usually is, so perhaps she has already _fed_ him.

For once, she does not slip under the covers and pretend to sleep, because right now, her heart is too heavy for her to move.

Instead, Sally sits more upright on the edge of the mattress and continues on reading as she had before the interruption.

The bedroom door slowly opens, and it surprises her that he does not check if she is still up. _Huh, he must be too tired to take the normal precautions, _she muses.

"Sally?" he sounds shocked, because she has not looked up yet from the page. However, she can almost imagine the horror in his face.

"Yes?" she replies, closing the book shut without even marking where she is. Actually, she couldn't even recall what she was reading about.

"W-well...you're up awfully...er, early. What is it, four o'clock?" He laughs nervously, scratching the back of his skull. When she glances at his face, he is flushing and refusing to meet her gaze.

At least he has the decency to _look_ ashamed.

"I didn't want to sleep," she whispers softly, lowering her eyes to her lap. "I guess it was too cold."

_Double meaning._

"Oh." He watches her unevenly, almost as if he is daring her to question his absence. But she doesn't, she knows, and so he moves closer and offers a skeletal hand, relief evident in his voice. "Shall we go back to bed, then?"

She ignores the outstretched hand and stares determinedly at the door behind him. "No. No, go ahead. I want to stay up some more."

So she rises, walks past him, and leaves the room.

As she descends the spiral staircase, holding onto the rails with a shaking hand, she realizes that maybe love isn't worth all the pain.

Their love, if it even exists, is short-lived as well.

* * *

**A/N: For the record, I ship JackXSally, but a happy ending would be too cliched. Now, everybody go write fluff about these two that will make you forget reading this!**


End file.
